X220, X230

So I just ordered 3 x 8gb of ddr3 sodimm for $28.61, which brings my running cost total to -$229 for the ThinkPads, and it's going to keep going up from here.

This X220 I bought for its keyboard, palmrest, trackpad and caddy is so... flipping.. lucky. When I opened it up, I already felt a little bad because it looked so nice. I think the keyboard and trackpad on it are brand new.. The screen was in great condition, didn't have a webcam (plus in my mind) ThinkLight worked. Sure, it was missing a battery, but that was about it. I'm a little conscious of creating eWaste, and I felt bad that reselling this for parts may very well lead to most of what's nearly a complete and functional and nice X220 becoming eWaste.

Nonetheless, I did buy it because getting all of this for $47 with the opportunity to resell some of it was a much better deal than spending $38 for just the keyboard and trackpad.. and it even came with one of the better variants of keyboards (Chicony). I was planning on taking the X220 keyboard and trackpad/palmrest and adapting it to the X230 for the ultimate X230 tablet, but I discovered... the TABLET variants of the X220/X230 won't take non-tablet trackpads, even from the same generation... So it's like.. bro.. do I just take the keyboard from this X220 and resell the rest? I'm sure I could get my money back and have a free nice keyboard. Or do I keep it, fix it up, and just buy those $38 worth of parts for my X230?

There really isn't anything "wrong" with this X220 as far as I can tell, heck I could see myself keeping it over the X230. There are several things about the X230 that I just don't want to deal with. With the X220, I discovered the cmos battery was bad, so I stripped the wires/pads off the old CR2032 coin cell and just taped them back onto a new coin cell with electrical tape, and that worked like a charm. I'd still want to repaste it with new thermal paste, replace the network card with an Atheros FOSS and flash the bios to Libreboot. I guess it's not as fast as the i7-3520m in the X230, but dang it, I'm not planning to do any photo editing or anything like that on these devices.

The X230 is in a state of limbo, I can't figure what I want to do with it. I have it listed for $220, but I'm thinking about upgrading the network card, repasting it with new thermal paste, cleaning the fans out, lightly sanding the exterior down with a magic eraser, upgrading to 16gb and relisting it for $300. If I end up buying the classic keyboard and palmrest for it, I'd list it for $350-$400. But I just don't know if anyone would buy it for that price. I see similar listings sell occasionally for those prices, but.. they're in like perfect condition, and the body on this laptop is certainly mildly used x) I think I'll skip the classic keyboard mod for this one

The x220 isn't really worth fixing up to sell for a premium price either, there are definitely several small chips and scratches on it. I'd definitely fix it up to keep though, everything about it is perfect for me except for the nagging sensation that there is a better processor out there in the x230 and I'll forever be computing at a slightly slower speed LOL

Update: The X220 is doubly lucky because the X230 sold in its current condition. If all goes well and there are no disputes, my ThinkPad balance will be -$39, and that's with the unsold 760XL still listed online and the x220 that I'm going to try to refurbish.

-Onio